Other Parts of the Journey
by Nelinde A
Summary: "Part of the journey is the end." But Endgame didn't show us everything. So here is a collection of one-shots that show what else was going for these characters. Spoilers for Avengers:Endgame.
1. Loki

**Loki**

"Do you really think it's a good idea to go back to earth?" Loki asked.

"Yes, of course!" Thor said. "The people of earth love me, I'm very popular."

Loki tried to give an annoyed smile, but part of him feared that there was some affection in it as well. "Let me rephrase that," he said. "Do you really think it's a good idea to bring _me_ back to earth?"

"Probably not, to be honest," Thor said breezily. "But I wouldn't worry, brother. I feel like everything's gonna work out fine." He smiled at Loki, and Loki couldn't help smiling back, with no attempts to be annoyed this time.

But Loki wasn't too sure when he saw the large ship looming up in front of theirs. He hadn't seen it before, but recognized exactly where it had come from. There was only one person who could own that ship, really.

"Who—" Thor started to say, but Loki instantly turned to him and cut him off.

"Brother, listen to me very closely," he said. "There is a very good chance that we and everyone on board is about to die right now, but that is a truly insignificant thing compared to what will happen to all other life forms if he gets ahold of the Tesseract."

Thor just stared. "Loki, what are you blabbering about? Who are you talking about? And didn't the Tesseract just blow up with the rest of—"

"No," Loki said. "No, Thor, it didn't, and I have it, and why I have it is not important, because Thanos is going to find it and take it."

Thor looked out at the ship, and could see the guns being aimed at them. He could hear one of his subjects sending a plea for mercy to the other ship, as well, though it didn't appear as if they were going to heed it.

"What do we do?" he asked.

"Well as I said, we may all be about to die," Loki said. "I can protect both of us, right now, from being blasted to smithereens, but then we will just have to submit ourselves to the will of Thanos until such a moment comes where we can try and kill him."

"But I don't even know who this Thanos is," Thor said desperately.

"And there's no time to explain, but he is the most dangerous Titan you will ever come across," Loki said. "And maybe he cannot be killed. And maybe we will die trying. But he must not get the Infinity Stones, do you hear me, brother, he must _not_."

"Loki…"

Loki looked out at the guns again and threw his arms around Thor. "Don't worry about me," he whispered. "Just save yourself if you can. Sometimes I can fake my death."

"I know," Thor said bitterly, but was prevented from saying anything else by a mighty blast that tore their ship right open.

Loki kept his arms firmly wrapped around his brother, and though both of them did avoid getting shot, Thanos did not allow them much time to recover before he had picked Thor up and was demanding the Tesseract.

Loki knew he usually had a very good grip on his wits, and all he could do right now was rely on them, because he was feeling a heavy fog of emotions otherwise. He hadn't anticipated Thanos trying to torture the Tesseract out of Thor. He hadn't anticipated the amount of sheer terror he himself would feel when being in Thanos' presence again. He didn't even really know what he was doing when he handed the cube up to Thanos, but he did know that anything was better than watching Thor suffer in the hands of that Titan. Thor wasn't about to go through what Loki had, he just couldn't.

But since Thor really wasn't in a position to kill Thanos out of the blue, Loki knew he had to do it. And he knew it would very probably fail, because he wasn't as in control of his cognitive resources as he usually was, but this would be perhaps the only time someone could get this close to him and try.

"I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again."

The last words he spoke to Thor rang in his head as he pulled a knife on Thanos. But Thanos had seen him, of course Thanos had seen him. Thanos always had found access to his thoughts.

"The sun will shine on us again."

Loki had to make that true, he wasn't going to die on a falsehood. And so with whatever weakened strength he had left, he put it all towards keeping Thanos out of his head, keeping him away from the knowledge of what Loki was about to do.

But in order for Loki to slip away and for Thanos to think he was really killing him, Loki had to maintain that very real fear of dying, and that alone almost did him in before Thanos had even squeezed his neck.

But it worked. It worked, even if it took its toll on him, and he had to let Thor mourn over a body that wasn't his as he transformed himself to look like on of Thanos' henchman and hop a ride. He found an abandoned corner of Thanos' ship where he felt ready to collapse, but he couldn't, not until he stowed away on one of the smaller ships heading to earth. That's where Thor had been heading anyway, so surely he would end up there.

The ship landed in Scotland, and Loki forced himself to find a ferry to Norway, whereupon he immediately went to an abandoned section of it and collapsed.

The following day saw Loki sitting where he'd seen his father die, waiting for Thor, or for Thanos to destroy the world, whichever came first. He sat staring until afternoon had nearly turned into evening, and he knew that presently he'd be watching the sunset.

And then he began to feel very strange, like there was a tingling in his fingers. He looked down and frowned in confusion as he saw his hand begin to fade away, like they were turning into dust. It felt very strange, but not necessarily bad. Not until he realized what this was. Thanos had won, and he was destroying life as everyone knew it. Loki's final thoughts before disappearing completely were wondering if Thor had lived only to fade away as well, and also being very sorry that he hadn't been able to keep his promise to his brother.

So when he woke up, on the same patch of grass that he'd remembering placing himself, he was very confused. Had he dreamt the whole fading out of existence? He sat up and looked around, and was very surprised to see a town had built up around them. It looked very different to anything he had seen before, but somehow, he could still tell that this was Asgard. New Asgard, anyway. A hope unlooked for began to rise in his chest, and he was about to run down and figure out what was going on when he saw a couple of portals open up in the town, similar to the ones Doctor Strange had captured him in.

Well, he was having none of that. He stayed where he was until he saw most of the people in the town go through them, and then only after the portals closed did Loki finally venture down. It was mostly abandoned, now, and he found he could explore it at his leisure. It took most of the day, but at the end of it the portals opened and all the people came back.

Loki saw Valkyrie and walked up to her. She just raised her eyebrows at him. "Thought you were dead," she said.

He squinted, looking her over. "I thought you were younger."

"Valkyries don't age," she scoffed. "Neither do Asgardians, or Frost Giants, apparently."

"But you have," he said. "Not in looks, but…"

She tilted her head. "You're one of those who vanished, then."

"Yes…I suppose that's what happened."

"That was five years ago," she said. "And everybody only came back today."

"How?"

She shrugged. "Loki, I don't even know how they left. But whoever did it is dead now, and those precious stones everyone was fighting over no longer exist, or something."

Loki didn't answer, but simply looked at her expectantly. She rolled her eyes. "And since I know you're too proud to ask if your brother is alive, I'm only gonna tell you that no, he's not here. But he'll be back in a few days."

And so Loki waited. Of course he did, what else was he going to do? He tried staying out of the public eye, but no one seemed bothered by his presence, and it was even nice not to have to hide, so he didn't as much.

And when Thor came back and took Valkyrie up to a hill to talk to her, Loki still waited. He waited until she'd walked away, but he knew she must have hinted something to him because Thor suddenly turned around like he was looking for something. His eyes lit up when he saw Loki and he bounded over.

"Loki!" he cried, throwing both arms around him. "Brother!"

"Yes, all right, you don't have to crush my bones," Loki gasped. "You're bigger now, remember."

"You did it you sneaky weasel!" Thor laughed, slapping him on the back. "You faked your death!"

"And you avoided it, seemingly. Well done."

"Come on, I know you're pleased to see me too," Thor said.

"Well," Loki said. "I really haven't missed you very long, you know. I've been dead for the past five years."

"And yet in spite of that, you were still correct," Thor said, and then sighed. "Doesn't it you get tired of being right all the time?"

"What was I right about?" Loki knew the answer to that, of course. But he couldn't help wanting to hear Thor say it.

"The sun is shining on us again," Thor said. He pointed. "See? It's right there!"

Loki gave his smile that could never be quite as annoyed as he wanted it to be. "How observant," he said. "Very happy for you. And no, being right never gets old, so you'd better show me where we live now, as I intend to hold my triumph over you for the rest of our immortal lives."


	2. Captain America

**Captain America**

Steve carefully placed the Tesseract back where Tony had found it. He sighed and began walking back towards Hank Pym's lab again. Even though he didn't need the Pym particles to travel back, he thought it would be smart just to have some. He once again stopped in front of Peggy's office and looked in at her. But he wasn't going to talk to her. No, she'd moved on, and he'd moved on, and he had friends waiting at home for him, and…

He pushed open the door before he could finish the thought and marched in her office. She glanced up, and then stared in horror and jumped up, instantly pulling out a gun and aiming at him. "Whoever you are, I can have backup here in less than two seconds, so I would identify yourself right now," she said fiercely.

Steve knew he shouldn't have smiled right then, but oh, how he'd missed her. "Peg," he said. "It's me."

She smirked. "Don't try and fool me, I've seen a lot strange things, so I know that you could…"

He stopped her by stepping forward and grabbing the sides of her head, leaning down to kiss her. She tried pushing him away at first, but then dropped her gun and grabbed his shoulders.

But almost immediately, she pulled back and stared at him. "No…" she whispered. "No, I won't be tricked into this…I…you died…they couldn't even find the wreckage…Steve is it really you?"

"Really me," he said. "And you know it is, Peggy, I know you know."

"But how?"

"I didn't die." He gave a twisted smile. "Just was knocked unconscious, and was preserved for seventy years until they accidentally dug me up."

She blinked and stared. "Seventy…but…"

"And then Howard's son invented time travel," Steve said slowly. "And here I am."

She continued to stare, and then rubbed her hands up and down his arms. "You're…from the future…"

"Yeah, and I know this is a lot to process, and I promise I'm just on my way back to my time, but I…" Steve collapsed in a chair. "I just needed to see you. I needed to talk to you."

"Of course," she said, pulling another chair up in front of him and sitting down. "Of course."

He looked up and gave a soft smile. "You don't believe me."

She sighed. "I do believe that it's you, Steve, only you could have kissed me like that. I admit that I'm struggling to process the time travel part, but, as I said, I have seen a lot of strange things, so I would never rule that possibility out. But what happened? When you woke up?"

Steve was silent for a moment. "It was an entirely different world," he said slowly. "Nothing looked the same, everyone I knew was dead, but they knew exactly who I was anyway. So I continued…being Captain America, making new friends, trying to have new relationships, and even though it took me a while to…adjust, I finally was able to realize that this was the reality I lived in, now."

"So you have been adjusting."

"Well that's just it," he said, still speaking slowly and deliberately. "I made new friends, great friends, friends I would die for, but I didn't have to, because I just lost two of them." He paused. "One of them being Howard's son."

"The one who invented time travel."

"Yep."

She placed her hand on his knee. "I'm so sorry."

"Yeah." Steve sighed. "But this…isn't my first time here, exactly. I time traveled here last week, or last week for me, anyway. And when I saw you, I suddenly realized I wasn't adjusted and never had been. I'd just learned to cope, and to bury any memories of this time, this place, these people. But all it took was one trip back and now I'm struggling to sleep, struggling to connect with my friends, unsure of my purpose."

"Why did you come last week?"

"I needed to borrow something," Steve laughed. "But I had to come put it back so as to not mess up this timeline."

"I see," she said. "So…if you were to stay would that mess up the timeline?"

He looked quickly up at her. "If I was to stay?"

"Yes," she said quietly.

"I can't," he swallowed. "If I did…" he considered. "If I did…" He stopped, and she waited for him to continue.

"It would be breaking some rules," he said. "And there would be two of me here, and I would have to not try and stop history progressing as I know it's meant to, and…"

"Yes, well you would know more about that than I," she said. "All I'm saying is I'd be happy to have you back in my life."

He held his hand out to her and she took it. "I'm so tired," he said softly. "So tired of adjusting, so tired of running, so tired of…losing the people that matter to me most in life."

"I know," she said, running her free hand through his hair. "I can tell."

"But I was given these gifts, and I have to use them."

"Well of course, that wouldn't stop if you stayed."

"I suppose," Steve said, "That if I just live out my full life here, and make it until the year I've just come from, then I can pass the Captain America mantle on to someone else."

He met her eyes, and she smiled. "I know you'll do the right thing," she said.

"I don't," he said. "But…I want to stay. And I will. Besides, I still owe you that dance."


	3. Happy Hogan

**Happy Hogan**

"But…Tony…"

"Her bedtime's at eight, don't let her give you any trouble," Tony said, ushering Pepper out the door.

"Oh, and don't let her have any juice pops past seven!" was the last thing Happy heard from Pepper.

"Definitely don't, big no-no in this house," Tony said, but he winked at Morgan and shook his head, making her giggle.

"Tony, again, I'm flattered but I really don't think…"

"Thanks a million, buddy, we'll be back at ten!" Tony called, and slammed the door behind him.

And there was Happy, stuck with a three-year-old Stark.

"Um," Happy said. "Okay, go play with your toys, and I'll just sit here on this couch."

Morgan laughed. "Play with me!" she cried.

"What? No, no no, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Play with me," Morgan repeated. She ran out of the room, and Happy breathed a sigh of relief as he sank down on the couch, but he didn't get to enjoy the silence long before Morgan again ran in with a variety of toys. She handed him a stuffed rabbit and then began talking a mile a minute as she handed him three dolls and a train. Happy blinked and tried to respond to the things she was saying, but he really couldn't understand most of it, and she didn't seem to need a response anyway.

Eventually Happy tilted his head as he noticed one of the toys lying on the ground. He picked it up and chuckled. "Stark's giving you his own merchandise to play with?"

"Daddy!" Morgan cried suddenly, pointing at the action figure in his hand.

Happy looked from her to the toy. "Yeah that's…right, how do you know that?"

"Daddy," Morgan said adamantly, grabbing the Iron Man doll and running around the room with it, pretending to make him fly. Happy watched her as a small smile began to crack on his face. He watched her for several minutes until she came racing back, crashing into his knees and almost falling into his lap as she shoved the action figure in his hand.

Happy's smile dropped as he looked at her. "What…what do you want me to do with this?"

"Play with me!" Morgan insisted, jumping up and down.

The day Morgan had been born, Happy was wearing such a pleased look that you'd have thought it was his child. Ever since then he'd been scared to touch her with a ten-foot-pole, but now that he was forced into this environment with her, he found all that love and pride that he'd had on her first day on earth coming back to him. "Play with you?" He said. "Oh, you're not even ready for this, Morgan H. Stark."

He handed her the Iron Man toy and hoisted her up onto his back, and jogged around the room with her. She shrieked in delight, and when he stopped, she demanded for him to do it again.

And somehow he couldn't find it in him to say no, so he kept running around with her until he legitimately felt about to pass out. He let her down and sank back into the couch, gasping for breath. "Well," he said. "I don't want to ever move again for a hundred years. You hungry? What do you want for dinner?"

"Duce pops!" she cried, pumping both fists in the air.

Happy shrugged. "I mean your mom said no juice pops after seven, and it's not seven yet…"

He poked around in the freezer and found some chicken nuggets, so he and Morgan had chicken nuggets and juice pops for their dinner. It wouldn't have been Happy's first choice, but she beamed at him the entire time she was eating her juice pop and somehow that made everything taste better.

He was a little worried about putting her to bed, but the only fuss she gave him was pouting a little as she got into her pajamas. As she was climbing under her covers, he saw her glancing at a picture on her bedside table. He picked it up and pointed at it. "Who's that?" he asked.

"Mommy," she said, beaming.

"And who's that?"

"Daddy," she giggled.

"And who's that?"

"Maguna!" she cried triumphantly, pointing at herself.

"Okay, that was super freaking cute," Happy said. "Good night, Maguna."

"Happy," she said, pointing at him.

He stopped and turned back, and never had he felt his heart melt so much as in that moment. "Yeah," he smiled. "Yeah, that's right kid." He pointed to himself. "_Happy_. More so than I have been in a long time."


	4. Black Widow

**Black Widow**

Natasha was reading over her notes when Steve walked in the room. "Vormir," she said softly. "Vor—Vor…how do you pronounce it again?" she asked, looking up at him. "Is the stress on the second syllable? Or was it the first one?"

"The first one," he said, smiling softly. "Does it matter though? It's an alien planet, you're just popping in and out. Who cares what it's called?"

She shrugged. "I just like knowing." She closed her notebook and smiled up at him. "So, what's up?"

He shrugged as well. "Nothing. Just got a lot of nervous energy."

"Me too," she said. "But, funnily enough, I think it's more energy than nervousness."

"Yeah?" he said.

"Yeah," she smiled. "Like, it terrifies me that this could go super wrong, and if we fail then we lose the hope that we're riding on now, but if you take all that away we're going on an interdimensional scavenger hunt. How cool is that?"

He gave a gentle laugh. "This hope won't be taken away from us," he said. "Not this time. I don't think we could survive one more round of getting our hopes up for nothing."

"I know," she said. "I know."

They were silent for a moment, and then Steve stirred and pushed himself up off of the doorway he was leaning on. "Well," he said. "I really was doing nothing. Everyone else is asleep."

"Everyone?" she asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, well Tony and Banner kinda passed out where you left them, Clint found the couch and I think Scott actually is the only one who found a real live bed."

"That's not everyone."

Steve chuckled. "Fine, you want to know the status of everyone else? Rhodey's getting ready to turn in, Rocket fell asleep over his workbench, Thor is asleep most of the time anyway so I kind of just assume him to constantly be in that state, and Nebula…"

"She's not," Natasha said, shaking her head. "I don't think she does sleep."

"She might," Steve said. "She could. But no, she's just kind of sitting and idling now. So I came to find the one person I knew would still be up."

Natasha nodded. "We are the insomniacs. Though I used to think Tony was one of us."

"Yeah, well. He's got a daughter now. Apparently your sleeping habits change when you're a parent."

Natasha snickered. "We wouldn't know."

"No," Steve said softly. "We wouldn't."

Natasha was silent again for a moment. "What if things go sideways?" she asked.

"Oh, no, let's not lose our optimism now, not when we're doing this Time Heist tomorrow."

"I'm not losing anything. I'm just wondering."

"Well," Steve said. "Not to lose our optimism or anything, but I really don't think things could get that much worse than they already are."

"Great," Natasha said. "Way to be optimistic. But that's not true, and we know that. Because we've thought that before, and then somehow, it got worse."

"I only meant there's very little we could still lose. There's not much left that…you and I could still lose."

She tilted back in her chair and crossed her arms. "There's you and I. We can still lose each other."

"Yeah, but that won't happen."

"And what makes you say that?"

Steve gave a twisted smile. "Because we're the unlucky ones. We're the ones who get left behind."

"Are we indeed," she said. "Well, I happen to disagree with that."

"How could you not agree with it? I couldn't go to war with my best friend, I wasn't pulled from the ice until seventy years later, and neither you nor I faded away after Thanos. They left us behind. They left us to cope, to deal, to try this crazy scheme."

"But you don't want to die," Natasha said. "Not really. You've never been that type."

"No, but I don't like other people dying, either."

"Yeah." Natasha sighed and pushed herself out of her chair. "Well, I almost regret being so positive these last couple of days, because I can tell it's making you more comfortable with sharing your own pain now that you don't think you need to think about mine."

Steve laughed. "Point taken. Sorry, Nat."

"Don't be." She went over to him. "These five years have changed us, and if you want to be more melancholic and nostalgic, then you're perfectly within your right to be. But that means that I get to do this…" She put her arms around him and held him tight. "And you will think no less of me."

He hugged her back, burying his nose in her hair. "I could never think less of you," he said. "And you're right, I came to you with this because usually the roles are reversed, but right now I need you more than you need me."

"I wouldn't worry about that, Rogers." She stepped back and smiled at him. "I'm always gonna need you. For something or another. I'm glad you got that shield back anyway, because no one else could vault me into the heavens like you could with that thing."

"Thanks," he said, turning away. "Well, I guess it's time to attempt my daily falling asleep strategies."

"Well if you're gonna try, I guess I will, too," she said. "But hey, Time Heist tomorrow, Steve."

"Time Heist tomorrow," he whispered. "Where our lives are going to entirely change. Again."


End file.
